Chapter 7: What I Know Now

They don't have any idea how long it might be before someone comes back, so they work swiftly. Carrie starts in the bedroom and, pulling out a large duffle bag, tries to find some dark, inconspicuous clothing to put in it. Unfortunately, not one single item of Alex's fits this description, and so she is limited to Charlie's clothing, which are also quite bright and colourful. Eventually she finds two grey t-shirts and some spare jumpers and shoves them in the bag, along with deodorant, socks and a cap she found at the bottom of Alex's drawers. Into plastic bags she puts Charlie's light, travel laptop and charger, as well as an iPhone charger to share. She also pulls a green beanie over her strikingly curly hair, remembering how easy it was for her friends to identify her from a distance by the blond mass.

Meanwhile, Phil ransacks the kitchen for portable meals; cans, biscuits, packaged treats all end up in a plastic bag which he leaves on the main table for Carrie to pack, along with two bottles of water. After a moment's thought, he pulls the blue, mohair rug off the couch and leaves that on the table too. They have their coats but it's nearly December and they have no idea what they're doing once they've left the house. It can't hurt to be prepared.

Feeling a little guilty for stealing from his friends, Phil then searches around to find any money. When he finds Alex's wallet, he decides to leave the bank cards (people always seem trace those in movies) and takes all the cash, which is £150. It's enough to start on, and he manages to scrounge up around £60 from the pockets of coats and the bottom of backpacks. Making a mental note of how much he's taken so that one day he can pay his fiends back (the possibility of not being able to pay them back is too daunting for him to deal with at the moment), he shoves the money in his wallet, which he puts into the inner pocket of his coat. Getting pickpocketed is always a risk in London, but they can't afford to lose what they have this time, not when they've already lost so much.

He meets Carrie at the back door, a forest green beanie somehow concealing all of her hair. She passes him a cap and he raises his eyebrows but pulls it over his hair. He'd never wear such a thing normally, which Phil concedes really is the point of disguising yourself, but he still cringes when he catches sight of himself in the mirror. It's strange, but somehow he is able to do all this. He can turn off the hurt and confusion and just focus, be logical- go on the run? Just as long as he doesn't think.

"Hey," Carries voice is a soft embrace and he realizes neither of them have spoken for almost an hour since making their rushed plans to leave the house, "We're going to be okay." She doesn't even pretend that she's convincing either of them that anything is okay, but it's nice to hear it said aloud anyway.

Phil nods and grabs her hand, giving it a short squeeze. "We still have each other right?" Carrie smiles up at him and nods.

They open the door and leave, making sure to lock it behind them. Even if locks can be picked, it gives them some sense of reassurance that they are leaving everything there to return to, eventually. There is supposedly no way to way to exit the house from the back, but thanks to Chris' endless pranking of his friends...

"No way, Alex will kill us if we break more things, they've only moved in three weeks ago!" Phil pretends to be reluctant, but he just giggles as he watches Chris work the planks of wood loose, bending them back and forth until they gave enough for a slender person to fit through the gap formed. "What Alex doesn't know will only hurt him as long as he doesn't let us use the spa bath!" Chris' gangster impersonation only makes Phil giggle harder, "Lester, you're my watchout, stay focused!" They are hidden behind the rose bushes, rigging up an elaborate slingshot, master pranksters at their prime. "Phil?" Chris sounds strangely concerned, and Phil-

"Phil?" Carrie's voice is more determined this time and he remembers himself, blinking away tears he hadn't noticed forming and, nodding curtly, leads the way to the far corner of the back garden. He's hardly rested properly in weeks, he's not about to let one more sleepless night turn him into a wreck. Pushing aside the thorny bushes with the sleeve of his coat, Phil pulls on the loose wood until the gap in the fence is revealed again, must to Carrie's amusement.

"So it was you guys! I swear Alex was just about to ask to move in to my place, he was so convinced the house was haunted!" Carrie always did manage to make the best of any situation she was put into, though how she could still be cheerful after this hell of a night is an utter mystery to Phil.

He stands back, indicating for her to go first, and he follows soon after, squeezing through the narrow gap before moving the planks back as well as he can to conceal their escape route.

It opens up onto a cobblestone alleyway that runs behind the houses on the street. From past experience, Phil knows that one direction leads to an exit on a nearby street, but that's not what they need right now. They've already agreed that neither of their places are going to be safe, but they need rest and shelter for a while, at least before deciding what to do next. Instead he turns left, following the alleyway down until it hits the back of the local library.

The fence is relatively easy to climb but the library doesn't open for another two hours, so they decide to sit in the rear carpark, leaning their weary backs against a thick tree trunk. Carrie's eyes are shut as soon as the back of her head is resting against the bark, and Phil reaches over to cover her with the rug.

He leans back next to her, resting his phone on to of his thighs, tracing with a single finger around the rectangular edge. His head is aching and his legs numb in the cool morning's air, but his mind seems to be working on overdrive- how he will ever be able to catch some sleep is beyond him. His mind slips back to what feels like an age ago, sitting around the table, reading over the strange documents. He lingers on the things he didn't appreciate then; the way Chris scrunched up his nose when he read things he couldn't comprehend, Charlie's endless cups of teas and kind words, how PJ kept fiddling with his pen, spinning it across his fingers (but only when Chris was looking), Alex's exuberant hand movements- and within a few minutes, he had joined Carrie in slumber.

They're on the run! All my love to my wonderful theta for again fixing this chapter up, and special virtual hot cross buns for CrazyxChaotic (I'm so glad! Who wouldn't want to be trapped in a house with Phil? :P), DevTheManiac (you're getting closer! :D), Korine (ahaha perfect- being human is awesome! Funnily enough when I first started planning this story that was very close to what it was going to be about!), NeverlandNat (But you're lovely and read and review all my writing and I think you're brilliant J) and athleanaprime21 (lots of tension! more tension next chapter and the next ehehe) – your reviews inspire me so very much to write and upload quickly for you! If you have any questions, theories or requests please review and let me know what you thought and I'll see you all soon! :D xxx panfs